Take My Money – Please!

Take My Money – Please!

Have you ever found yourself chasing down a vendor so you can give them your money? It’s a more common occurrence than it should be. It seems simple enough – a customer has money and wants to spend it and a business has a product or service and wants to sell it. So why is it so difficult sometimes? If you are the business owner in this scenario, you have the ability to make it easy for people to become customers. Here are few tips:

Make yourself available. Having a clearly visible contact submission form on your website is a good way to let people ask questions at their convenience, but be sure to respond to inquiries in a reasonable amount of time. The same goes for phone calls – don’t make people wait too long. You might get around to calling them and find they’ve already become someone else’s customer.

Communication is key. Often, a potential customer doesn’t mind if you can’t answer their questions today as long as you stay in touch and let them know you’re working on it. Don’t make them wonder if you forgot about them.

Give and get good information. You probably can’t give an exact quote by phone, but you might be able to give ballpark information. If you ask the right questions, you can possibly qualify or disqualify a customer up front, thereby making good use of your time by pursuing the most qualified leads.

People who need your product or service don’t want to feel like they are jumping through hoops to get to you. When someone attempts to give you their hard-earned money, make it as easy as possible for them to do or they’ll most likely go elsewhere.